My wife and I have been working on a hunting cabin for the past year. I had to put the pedal to the metal this week because heavy rain was forecast and I had to get the frame up and covered with tarps beforehand. All is well: deck and frame covered and raining like the dickens today. I could easily finish the job in about 3 weeks full time. But, life be as it may, I got to work. And winter is coming. I have no choice but to leave it unfinished till spring.

The problem will come in the spring when I am suppose to resume work. I will have lost all interest. My *cabin thread* will have been replaced many times over. This is a very serious problem for me. I am not kidding. It is not just cabin building. It is everything. If I don't run a project to completion is remains incomplete.

Adderal is a life saver with restarts. Anyone discover a *natural* remedy.

Bob

Only all of my life. When I was knitting (stopped due to trigger thumb) I would have at least 3 projects going on. There were many I just lost interest in and never finished. Currently my dishwasher is about 1/3 emptied. :o

So I'm sitting here reading this as I add things on my list of things to do this weekend. I laugh to myself as this is exactly my problem. I will start something, and for one reason or another I get torn away and then it sits. And sits. And sits. Did I mention that it sits?

I have a perfectly restored vehicle sitting in an enclosed storage unit with my boat that I only need to spend a weekend or two on. How long has it been this way you ask???

Let's just say it has December of 2002 license tabs on it. It gets run once in awhile when I need to get the boat out...But, as you can see, I digress....

I sometimes have to find ways of tricking myself into restarting an already started project. Once I get started again, no problem, but it remains a big elephant in my way until then.

I don't know if this is a human problem or an ADD problem, though. I think alot of people wrestle with this one. I suppose the difference is whether this problem is rampant in one's life or not. (It is in mine)

If you force yourself, or as I do it, trick yourself into going to the cabin to relax, you may find yourself actually working on it..... BUT don't tell yourself that is why you are going there, or you will find a hundred other things that need to be done first.

Now if only I can get my projects going again. :)

If it's not directly in front of me, it doesn't get done. If I stop a particular project, I may not pick it back up until something, usually something completely unrelated like a tv commercial, reminds me of the original project.

But of course what you're really asking is "how can I try to get myself to pick it back up again?"

In a situation like yours, I'd try to keep myself excited about the project in the intervening time, almost to the extent of getting ****ed about not being able to do it over the break. The downside to this is that you wind up letting this distract you from everything else. One other thing that sometimes works for me is working on related projects in the interim. For instance, you could spend the intervening time shopping around for furniture for the cabin, or for hunting equipment and supplies. You could spend the time cleaning and repairing the equipment you already have, stuff like that. This way, when spring comes, you'll be motivated to go out and finish it, especially since it becomes the next logical step in what you're already doing, so you don't feel like you're "restarting," you're just continuing what you're doing.

That being said, if Adderall helps, then by all means use it. I often have the same problems with restarting tasks, and have found that medication has really helped me. Look, you wouldn't expect a chemo patient to just raise their blood cell count on their own, would you? No, they take EPO and related medications to do so, even though these medications, like AD/HD medications, have unsavory non-medicinal uses which give them a certain social stigma. You have a medical condition, this is one of the symptoms, there's a medication that helps, why not use it? Especially since, in my experience at least, this kind of difficulty often extends far beyond hobbies and home projects, but also affected my work and studies, my social life, personal organization, etc.

There really aren't that many "natural remedies" to try. Meditation and exercise can help, and I use taekwondo to aid me in this way, but just as there is no way for a chemo patient to increase blood cell counts, there is no way for you to increase certain neurotransmitter chemicals in your brain. There are a number of organizational strategies you could try, involving altering your daily routine, but in my experience, at least, the problem isn't that you don't have the right organizational strategy, it's that you are neurologically incapable of being organized.

The one other thing, though, which does help as much as medication, is regular therapy. Having a psychologist or psychiatrist who specializes in AD/HD problems to guide you through things is invaluable. Psychiatrists are usually too expensive and too busy to see aside from med checks, but seeing a psychologist or counelor once a week or every other week, depending on your needs makes a huge difference. The two combined are far more effective than either alone for me. Both medication and therapy complement each other.

I would have at least 3 projects going on. There were many I just lost interest in and never finished. Only three?

Currently my dishwasher is about 1/3 emptied. :o I just this minute left my dishwasher half emptied. :D

Only three? :DAt least. :rolleyes: Oh, then there are the ones that I completed the knitting and never pieced together.:o

Yes, and for this reason I get militant about finishing projects I start, I work on them day after day till they're done (ignoring other, sometimes important things) My wife doesn't understand it, but I know that once I stop working on something, it will sit and be hard to start back up.

I have material for curtains I carefully picked out that are still waiting to be sewn to go on a window.... for 5 years.

So sometimes this can be a non-ADD thing also.

Let's see ... Hmmmm :rolleyes:

- everything along the walls in the basement is moved to the center so I could paint the walls and floor. Been this way since spring. :eek:

- the front porch railing is sitting in the back yard, because I need to rebuild part of it. Been this way since summer. :eek:

- lattuce needs to be installed around the back porch and a railing needs to be installed. Been this way since summer. :eek:

- need to finish leveling the dirt around my son's outdoor "O" gauge train box (20' x 8'). Been this way since late summer. :eek:

- need to remove the remaining window air conditioners. Did one a couple weeks ago and have 3 more to do. :eek:

- have to trim the bushes on the side of the house before winter. Been this way since last fall. :eek:

Hey, here is my weekend "to do" list. All I have to do is print it out.

Nah, I think I'll blacken the inside of my reflector telescope sonotube with Ultra Flat Black spray paint instead. :D

Or maybe I'll just play guitar all day.

How about take a nap. :)

Difficulty restarting projects is linked to the Executive Functions via the ability to persist, as well as initiate.

Restarts are a major problem around our home, my husband (who my counselor believes has ADD too) and I currently have the following projects in progress:

* remodeling the living room -- we tore the carpet up in June

* replumming a closet for our new washer and drier -- they've been sitting in our living room since August unused

* remodeling out kitchen -- finally got the new tile down, but haven't trimmed the cabinet so the refridgerator will fit in it's spot so it sits out 3 feet in the middle of the kitchen for a month now

I could go on, but you probably see the pattern.:p So if misery loves company, you've got plenty!